My Google Internship • Hacker News Board

Re: My Google Internship

#21

Post by Tushon » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 1:48 AM UTC

linkregister wrote: post #20

steven777400 wrote: post #3

I love reading accounts like this. It's fun and well written and I enjoy the photos too. I work in a cube farm of grey cubes on boring LoB applications. I know I'll never be skilled enough (or, more correctly, I'll never be ambitious enough to become skilled enough) to work at Google et al but it's really fun to sample the experience from the outside. :)

What are LoB applications? I think you suffer from an extreme case of imposter syndrome. Looking through your comment history, I conclude you are more than capable of working there. Whether it would fit with your location/work-life-balance/life goals, I am not sure. Google gets an inflated reputation as do many other prestigious firms. The interview process contains a large element of chance. 1. I would suspect that…

Not OP, but LOB stands for Line of Business and the TL;DR is that it is any application which fulfills a critical business need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_business

Re: My Google Internship

#22

Post by munificent » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 1:52 AM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

steven777400 wrote: post #3

I love reading accounts like this. It's fun and well written and I enjoy the photos too. I work in a cube farm of grey cubes on boring LoB applications. I know I'll never be skilled enough (or, more correctly, I'll never be ambitious enough to become skilled enough) to work at Google et al but it's really fun to sample the experience from the outside. :)

I really hate reading people believe they aren't skilled enough or won't be good enough to work at Google. When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible, and that Google is a huge company that has to hire thousands of people every year, you realize that this view that Google is "the best place to work" or that everyone who works there is a…

> When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible

Ugh, I can't believe how often I see this repeated with zero evidence to support it.

I work at Google. The office is a ghost town by 6:30. The work life balance on every team I'm aware of is great.

Saying the perks are some underhanded strategy to keep people around hugely insults the intelligence of the people working here or at any other office for that matter. Do you honestly think there are people that are like, "God, I'm miserable! I've been here 16 hours and I hate my life but I just... can't... stop... playing foosball!" Damn you, Google, and your nefarious perks!

No, that doesn't happen.

The reality is that skilled software engineers are in very high demand and companies compete very hard for them. Salary is part of it but perks are a huge component. No matter how much cash you make, for eight hours of the day, you are not spending it on fun leisure, you are at work. So companies understand now that they have to make the workplace appealing too to keep talent.

They also find, no surprise, that happy, stimulated people are productive, creative people too.

> Please don't ever get the impression that Googlers are somehow above you, because they're not.

I totally agree.

Re: My Google Internship

#23

Post by 40acres » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 1:56 AM UTC

You mentioned that you took some MIT OCW courses, did you actually do the psets and quizzes?

Re: My Google Internship

#24

Post by linkregister » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 2:00 AM UTC

Tushon wrote: post #21

linkregister wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are LoB applications? I think you suffer from an extreme case of imposter syndrome. Looking through your comment history, I conclude you are more than capable of working there. Whether it would fit with your location/work-life-balance/life goals, I am not sure. Google gets an inflated reputation as do many other prestigious firms. The interview process contains a large element of chance. 1. I would suspect that…

Not OP, but LOB stands for Line of Business and the TL;DR is that it is any application which fulfills a critical business need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_business

It sounds like a perfect set of experience to go to freelancing and then remote development. It seems like going remote is the 2nd most popular endgame for most individual contributors on HN (lucrative startup exit being the first).

steven777400 is ahead of the game!

Re: My Google Internship

#25

Post by namelezz » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 2:02 AM UTC

munificent wrote: post #22

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate reading people believe they aren't skilled enough or won't be good enough to work at Google. When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible, and that Google is a huge company that has to hire thousands of people every year, you realize that this view that Google is "the best place to work" or that everyone who works there is a…

> When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible Ugh, I can't believe how often I see this repeated with zero evidence to support it. I work at Google. The office is a ghost town by 6:30. The work life balance on every team I'm aware of is great . Saying the perks are some underhanded strategy to keep people around hugely insults the intelli…

> skilled software engineers are in very high demand and companies compete very hard for them

I keep hearing this but when I ask how to identify skilled engineers things get confused. ;)

Re: My Google Internship

#26

Post by gmurphy » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 2:05 AM UTC

steven777400 wrote: post #3

I love reading accounts like this. It's fun and well written and I enjoy the photos too. I work in a cube farm of grey cubes on boring LoB applications. I know I'll never be skilled enough (or, more correctly, I'll never be ambitious enough to become skilled enough) to work at Google et al but it's really fun to sample the experience from the outside. :)

I thought the same thing once, but applied anyway on a whim. Have now been at Google for 11 years.

It can't hurt to try.

Re: My Google Internship

#27

Post by linkregister » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 2:07 AM UTC

munificent wrote: post #22

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate reading people believe they aren't skilled enough or won't be good enough to work at Google. When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible, and that Google is a huge company that has to hire thousands of people every year, you realize that this view that Google is "the best place to work" or that everyone who works there is a…

> When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible Ugh, I can't believe how often I see this repeated with zero evidence to support it. I work at Google. The office is a ghost town by 6:30. The work life balance on every team I'm aware of is great . Saying the perks are some underhanded strategy to keep people around hugely insults the intelli…

I agree. I know a couple of outliers at Google who work long hours, but even the business folks aren't working much more than 45-50 hours per week. None of the engineers I know work more than 40 hours per week.

I've heard that some engineering teams at Amazon and Apple work long hours, but never heard it about Airbnb, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft (last 5 years), or Uber.

Re: My Google Internship

#28

Post by foobarian » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 2:10 AM UTC

munificent wrote: post #22

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate reading people believe they aren't skilled enough or won't be good enough to work at Google. When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible, and that Google is a huge company that has to hire thousands of people every year, you realize that this view that Google is "the best place to work" or that everyone who works there is a…

> When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible Ugh, I can't believe how often I see this repeated with zero evidence to support it. I work at Google. The office is a ghost town by 6:30. The work life balance on every team I'm aware of is great . Saying the perks are some underhanded strategy to keep people around hugely insults the intelli…

I got a job at a perk-loaded web shop along that same vein, and the thing about "toys" and various other benefits is that they help my time at the office be more efficient. In particular the cynical view that they keep you at the office longer has some truth to it, but the mechanism at play is relatively honest. For example take free food; I love not having to go outside to get lunch. I'm often in the middle of a good flow and it's so nice to be able to bring some food to my desk in 5 minutes instead of having to spend an hour finding a seat, waiting for the check etc. This means I can get more done while at the office, and still go home early to be with the kid.

Similar for the other things like the pub or foosball; I can have a quick evening of hanging out with friends right there on the premises instead of driving an hour to meet up somewhere. So again the time saved ends up helping the company, and benefits me as well because who likes to sit in traffic.

I'm not saying it's better to do those things 100% of the time, but some healthy fraction. Of course it's a nice break to walk down the street for lunch on a nice day, etc.

Re: My Google Internship

#29

Post by tmptmp » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 2:10 AM UTC

>>For most people, this means coming to work some time between 9 and 11 AM (breakfast ends at 10 AM) and leaving between 5 and 8 PM (dinner starts at 6:30 PM). My schedule was a little different: I came to work between 9 and 10 AM and left between 12 and 2 AM. Yes, you read that right. I spent a lot of time in the office, to the extent that my co-workers asked me if I lived there.

This is the kind of devotion to work/study, I wish I could emulate. Especially, given his age, working for 8 hr on company work and then 6-8 hr on your personal work/study without getting distracted is amazing. He should, and he indicated would (which is good), not ignore the work/life balance.

Congrats and thanks for posting.

Re: My Google Internship

#30

Post by ipince » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 2:11 AM UTC

Glad you had a good time. Any concerns about working on personal projects using Google resources (whether or not you used their laptop, you used their building, wifi, snacks, etc.). Wouldn't they own the IP? (if they wanted to pursue it)